Alleycat
by hiddenkindzero
Summary: It started with a weird app on his phone, and a not talking cat. It ended with a talking cat, two best friends, and a team Damian would give anything for.Or Six years after the Phantom Thieves of Hearts saved the world from Yaldabaoth, the metaverse has risen up again, with a whole new look. It's up to the next generation of Phantom Thieves to uncover the mystery of the new Metanav
1. Chapter 1

Damian adjusted the tight collar of his high school uniform and frowned at himself in the mirror. It was the first day of his junior year, and it would most likely end the same way it had his sophomore and freshman year. With him, bored out of his mind, wondering about whatever case his father would take on, and what miniscule part he'd play in it. A high pitched _meow _from his bed alerted him to Alfred's infiltration of his side bag, and he forced down the twitch in his lips that would've ended in a rare smile. The cat had been damn persistent in its involvement in his school life, and had been with him everyday since his freshman year, hiding in his desk during classes. The only reason Damian got away with bringing Alfred with him was because the human Alfred didn't seem to mind. A rare blessing in his otherwise boon-less life. There was also the fact that Alfred the Cat was as quiet as can be during the school hours. He certainly was a peculiar cat…

A second _meow _alerted Damian to his dwindling down time, and he made his way (Alfred in tow) to the kitchen where Alfred the human had his breakfast ready for him. He gave Alfred a small thank you, and ate his food quietly, Alfred the cat coming up every few seconds to swipe bits and pieces of food from his plate. He was half-way through his meal when Alfred the human cleared his throat. The reaction was immediate. Alfred the cat hunkered in his bag, completely out of sight, and Damian tensed ever so slightly. Bruce Wayne, owner of Wayne Manor and Damian's father walked in two seconds later.

There was no good morning, no small talk. Bruce nodded at Alfred, grabbed whatever he came into the kitchen to get (Most likely the liquid cocaine Tim called coffee) and left. Damian relaxed a couple seconds later. Alfred the cat popped out of his hiding and affectionately rubbed his head on Damian's left hand (and swiped even more food from his plate) and this time Damian did smile, The faintest little twitch of the lips Alfred the cat had ever seen, and went back to finishing his breakfast.

Alfred the human started up on the dishes that had accumulated over the morning and after humming a little bit of a tune, started to speak.

"Forgive me Master Damian, but I forgot to mention that Master Jason will be bringing you to school and picking you up today"

Three years ago, Damian would have scrunched up his nose, the fire of defiance lighting up his stomach and made a few choice comments about being forced to spend time with one of 'the competition' to his future title of Batman. As it was, that fire had long been snuffed out, and Damian accepted his fate with a soft "hm".

A quick glance at the clock told Damian that it was about time to leave, and Damian deposited his dishes in the sink, making sure to give a second thank you to Alfred the human as he walked by. He made his way outside and stood on the lawn right beside the driveway, waiting for Jason to arrive. He fiddled with his phone while he waited, going through odd photos and pictures Alfred the cat had somehow taken when he had been away from his phone. Closing the camera roll, Damian went to click his phone off.

And that's when he noticed it. A red and black app, with a large single eye as its thumbnail. He stared at the app for a minute, equal parts suspicious and confused. The Metanav it was called. He was almost tempted to press on it. Almost.

Without a second thought, he dragged the app to the garbage can and deleted it.

"Just my luck." he complained to Alfred the cat. "Someone probably planted spyware on my phone. Father's going to kill me when he finds out".

To Alfred's credit, the cat looked concerned.

"Weirdly obvious for spyware though. Maybe my phone just updated?" Alfred made his thoughts known with a confirming _raow _.

"Yeah, you're right. Probably nothing to worry about. Strange though, I wouldn't expect any phone company to create such a sinister looking app without telling it's customers. Next time a weird app pops up on my phone, I'll show you"

Alfred purred his acceptance, as if it could actually understand everything Damian was saying to it, and as Damian had done many times before, he started to really wonder just how intelligent Alfred was.

He didn't get to wonder for long. Jason drifted in, dangerously close to where Damian was standing, and opened the car door before the car had even fully stopped. Damian entered the somewhat beat up black mini-van without a sound.

"Morning kid!"

"Morning. Did your phone update with a funny app by any chance?"

"What?" Jason quickly pulled out his phone and scrolled through his apps. "Uh no?"

"Spyware it is then. I guess my phone was hacked sometime last night."

"Damn." Jason slipped his phone back into his pocket and started driving. "Does Bruce know?"

Damian's snort was all the answer Jason needed and the older man nodded in sympathy. "Yeah, probably better he didn't. Knowing him he'd probably go crazy trying to figure out who did it and how much information they got. For good reason I guess, but still. Not fun."

"Then again, it's my private phone. Father doesn't even have access to it. And I mostly use it for entertainment anyway."

Jason shrugged, not having anything to say. The two were at a… weird point in their brotherly relationship, with a big off limits sign put in front of any topic that included their night lives. Red Hood was not an ally of Robin, after all. Even so, the small amount of peace they had decided to give each other in their civilian identities was nice. At the very least, Damian had a better relationship with Jason then he had with Tim, not that that really meant much.

The rest of the car ride was spent remotely in silence. Jason grumbled a few times about traffic, and Alfred would get just a tiny bit restless and meow for Damian's attention, but other than that, it was a quiet ride all the way to Gotham Academy.

Damian bidded Jason a small goodbye and walked onto the white polished sidewalk that led him through Gotham Academy's gates. His feet already knowing where they needed to take him, Damian pulled out his phone and started rolling through his apps absentmindedly. Halfway through the courtyard, Damian froze. A Black, ominous eye stared up at him from his phone, the red box of the app named Metanav back on his home screen where it definitely shouldn't be. He frowned, and discreetly brought his phone to his side where Alfred could see.

"It's back." The frown could practically be heard in his voice as he showed Alfred the app.

Damian didn't expect the loud, surprised _MROW! _Alfred screamed as the cat lunged at his phone.

Damian definitely didn't expect the world to literally freeze as Alfred opened the app.

"What the hell?"

Alfred was frozen in mid air, his paws touching where the app had been, his back legs stuck in Damian's Side bag. All around him, students stood mid-step. Some had their mouths open, others were mid chew of whatever breakfast bar they had brung with them. One kid was halfway to the floor, having tripped on his own shoe-laces, and another kid was looking directly at Damian, his eyes lit up in interest that made Damian slightly uncomfortable having not noticed the boy till now.

Apprehensive, Damian looked to the sky, expecting to see birds mid-flight and the sun glaring down at him.

Instead, he saw a figure. It was obscured by whirling clouds, green lightning twisting and turning and moving around as two large glowing eyes and a transfixed glowing smile bore down on Damian from above. In Damian's chest, something burned, A long lost fire doused years ago by fear and guilt. Unbidden, the words entered Damian's heart and settled in his brain with a bang.

**My other self…**

And then, just as suddenly as it happened, it was over. People resumed walking. That kid from earlier fell, and oh god Alfred was _screaming! _

"Shut up, Shut up!" Damian grabbed Alfred by the nape of his neck and forced him into the bag hurrying to a hiding spot that was away from the crowd. "What is wrong with you?!" Damian whispered harshly.

Alfred's desperate _meows _echoed along the empty corner Damain had found for him. The cat continued for a few more minutes, its meows becoming increasingly desperate before giving up and settling into Damian's bag with a depressed whimper.

"Aw come one Alfred, what's wrong?" The cat burrowed deeper, and Damian could only sigh and worry about the cat's odd behavior.

"I just need you to stay quiet for the day alright? When we get home, we'll figure…" Briefly, Damian wondered if he was going crazy, or if there really was something to figure out. "We'll figure everything out, okay?" Alfred didn't respond, and all Damian was able to do was sigh and zip up his bag half-way.

Quietly, Damian took a few seconds to take deep breaths, and decided that the stress of his 'night job' was getting to him, and the experience in the courtyard was nothing but a bad day dream. He turned to go back the way he came, and stopped when he realised the kid that had been staring at him earlier was walking towards him with a sheet of paper in his left hand. Damian suppressed a sigh cause really, he had been doing that too much lately and it was beginning to become a habit.

"Hey!" the kid called out to him with a wave. He was actually one of the few people who seemed to be shorter than Damian. Like Damian, the boy had short black hair, but where Damian's was spiky and jutted up in the front, the boy's was straight and ended just halfway down his forehead. The boy also wore black circular glasses, and where Damian's uniform was smooth and creaseless, the boy's were scuffed up and wrinkled. His tie wasn't tied correctly, and ultimately, it looked like he had just gotten out of bed.

"I gotta question for ya!" The boy smiled at him, amused and halfway delighted and Damian already knew he was going to regret this interaction.

"First off, Did you bring a cat to school? Cuz that's pretty awesome y'know."

"No I didn't."

"Cool!" The smile never left the kids face as he completely ignored Damian's lie. " You got real lucky I was the only one who saw that. Can I pet your cat?"

"... No."

"Alright. I'm Jack." He held out his hand for Damian to shake. "You're Damian Wayne right? I thought I recognized you."

Damian wanted to ask from where, but decided he didn't want the headache. He shook the kids hand (it was coarse and scratchy) and confirmed that, yes he was Damian Wayne.

"What do you want?" If Damian sounded a tad bit annoyed, it wasn't his fault.

"Sorry" Jack laughed. "It's just that, I just transferred here, and I noticed that you're on my class roster but I have no idea where homeroom actually is, so I was hoping you could lead me there?"

"Class roster?" Damian took the paper Jack had been holding - his schedule- and frowned. Jack had somehow gotten the list of kids in their homeroom printed to the back of his schedule, and yes Damian was on there. Interestingly enough, Jack was in the majority of elevated classes Damian was in, and a couple that he wasn't.

"You've got periods one through six with me. After that you're on your own. How'd you get the class roster by the way?"

"The roster? I was interested so I searched around the school's database a bit."

"Ah yes, the database that students **don't **have access to"

Jack grinned even wider. "Hey! If you can bring your pet cat to school, I can do a little harmless hacking on the school's website."

The school bell rang and Damian walked past Jack towards the buildings. "Whatever. Let's go."

The two fell in step together as they made their way to homeroom.

"So what's your cat's name? Is it something cool like Blaze? or are you more the cutesy type, like snowball. Your cat looked like a snowball."

Alfred _mrowed _offended, and for the hundredth time, Damian sighed. It was going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

The majority of the school day went off without issue. Despite what Damian assumed, Jack wasn't all that talkative during class. That didn't mean he paid attention, no. The kid spent practically all day on his phone (an old brick looking thing) and barely took notes. He also seemed to miss getting multiple papers and packets, and had to stay after class for a few seconds to bug the teacher to get them. For someone in high level classes, he didn't seem to care much about school. Then again, it was the first day of school, and most classes had little time for actual academics after going over the usual load of paperwork and syllabus presentations. Damian himself spent his time looking out the window daydreaming.

The lunch bell was a much needed relief from the monotony. Damian quickly grabbed his things, and before he could even start for the door, Jack was right beside him. Generally, he seemed a lot calmer, and the wide grin he had had when they first spoke was reduced to a relaxed smile.

"So, cafeteria?" Jack said, pointing his thumb to the classroom door.

Wordlessly the two made their way out of the cluttered classroom and walked down the blue and white checkered halls. The walls were filled with bulletin boards littered with school news and event dates. Every door had a gold placard with a room number on it, and every few minutes, the two would walk past a picture of a floor map encased in plastic on the wall. The halls themselves were pretty crowded with students. Despite this, Jack seemed able to keep up without getting lost and Damian was glad he didn't need to babysit Jack more than he already had.

Halfway to the lunch room, the ambient chatter that had permeated the halls seemed to vanish, and it was with a growing sense of annoyance that Damian realized why. He glanced back at Jack, to the boys undone tie, and crooked collar ,and started to debate on whether or not he should take the time to fix Jack's appearance. It was then that the two rounded the corner and came to face the source of Damian's annoyance.

There, in the middle of the hall, halfway between the door that led to the courtyard and the beginning of the hallway stood The Principal. Damian actually hissed and Jack received the explicit delight of being shoved back into the hall from whence they came.

"Ow! What the hell?" Jack grumbled.

"Fix yourself." Damian peaked around the corner and frowned.

"What?"

"That's The Principal." Damian moved back, glared at Jack's uniform. "She's an awful, completely mental woman. She's always looking for a reason, any reason, to punish students. And your clothes give her ten."

"But it's the school uniform, I'm fine." Jack pulled on the fold of his blazer, where his button was sewed on.

"It doesn't-" Damian was cut off by The Principals booming voice.

"Excuse me young lady!"

Both boys popped their heads around the corner to see the commotion. The entire hallway had stopped, and was staring at the principal, a short, otherwise non-intimidating woman in a suit. She had short black hair, not quite in a bowl cut but close. She stared at a short black haired girl who's eyes never left the floor.

"Come here." The Principal beckoned to the girl with her finger as if she were a child. The girl, who Damian could only assume was a sophomore, dragged her feet to stand in front of The Principal.

"What are those?" She pointed to the girls legs, which were obscured by black fishnets. The girl mumbled inaudibly and Damian could only stare in disdain at The Principal. For women, the school uniform consisted of a blue blazer with some kind of long sleeved shirt underneath. A large skirt and high socks were the only option for clothing below the belt, and anything else … well.

"We make the dress code very easy to follow young lady." Her high, condescending voice grated on Damian's nerves. "And we make it very clear which items violate that. Look at all these women, miss. Do you see them wearing fishnets?"

The girl didn't respond, and The Principal took a step forward, invading the girls personal space by just a little bit.

"Well?!" The Principal pressed. "Are you going to answer me young lady? Or do you not understand the question. Do you need me to speak a bit slower for you?"

The Principal bent down to eye level and loudly, with every word exaggerated asked "Do - You - See - Any - Other - Ladies - Wearing - Fishnets - ?"

"What the fuck?" Jack whispered, and Damian could only nod in agreement.

"This isn't even her at her worst. She gets … angrier the deeper we get into the school year."

"And this lady hasn't gotten fired?"

Damian sighed. The Principal had moved on to scolding the girl for not having the top button of her blazer buttoned, and was making some rather unsavory remarks about what she thought the girl dressed like out of school. The poor student was shaking, and it wasn't until she started crying that The Principal gave the girl a detention and started yelling at another kid.

"The teachers pretend that The Principal's great, and all the students are too afraid to tell their parents."

Jack scoffed. "You're telling me that in a school full of rich kids, not one of them has decided to complain to their mommies and daddies."

Damian took note on how Jack seemed to exclude himself from the title of 'rich kid' and answered "Without evidence, nothing can be done. There's also the fact that most parents don't care. I even mentioned her behavior to my father, but there's bigger things to be worrying about apparently."

"Damn. And she probably has money too." Jack was looking down at his brick-phone. "Apparently she used to be a judge. Don't know how that led to a career as a principal, but money will do that, I guess.`` Jack stuffed his brick in his pants before Damian could get a good look at the screen.

"How'd you find that out? I doubt you know her name."

Jack waved Damian off. "Don't worry about it. I'm not 'fixing' myself by the way. There has to be another hall that leads to the cafe right?"

Damian Tsked. "Your lucky the lunch period is extended today, Come on."

Damian led Jack back from where they came and took the long way to the lunch room. It was packed when they arrived, and almost all the food choices were gone, which was fine seeing as how Damian had his own lunch. Damian made his way to one of the few empty tables, passing the football team as he went, and was not surprised when Jack followed.

"Not eating lunch today?"

"What?" Jack was looking around, taking in the large oval tables and the white floor and walls.

Just as Damian was going to repeat himself, Jack said "Oh, no. I brought some from home."

Jack's lunch from home was, in actuality, a jar of nutella and a spoon. Damian made no comment as he uncapped his far superior fruit salad and began to eat.

Honestly, he had been hoping for a semi-peaceful lunch period. Unfortunately, today seemed to be the day of loud, obnoxious assholes, because just a few minutes into his food a loud disturbance was occuring just a few tables to Damian's right.

"Hey, come on, I'm just being friendly!"

Damian glanced at the large blonde boy standing right over the smaller boy's head. His hand was on the table, right next to the smaller kids food, and the smaller boy was looking around the table uncomfortably, as if asking for help.

After a few more exchanges, Damian came to the conclusion that the larger boy was trying to get the smaller boy to agree to 'go out' with him. It wasn't something Damian hadn't seen before. Often, it was between one of the senior boys and whatever girl they had been 'nice' to earlier on during the day. It was almost always stopped by another student. Sometimes the victims' friends, and other times whatever bystander was walking by. Damian hadn't needed to ever get involved before, but as the larger boy continued to press, and the smaller boy withdrew further within himself, Damian came closer and closer to standing up and knocking the larger the boy on his ass.

Damian spared a glance to Jack's direction to find the boy holding his spoon tightly in one hand, and glaring at the blond boy. Jack must have reached his tipping point faster than Damian had, for abruptly, he stood up walking towards the other boy's table. Damian quickly stood with him, and the two made it half-way before a dark skinned, lean girl walked up to the blond boy and very loudly told the boy to "Leave the kid alone."

At first, the blond boy ignored her, but she wasn't having it and forced herself between the blond boy and his target.

"Hey! I'm trying to talk here, so why don't you mind your own business-" He went to jab at her collar with his finger and, without any warning what-so-ever was grabbed by the wrist and flipped onto his back. At this point, students were standing up and crowding around to what would hopefully be an entertaining fight. Despite himself, Damian was kind of impressed by what few skills the girl had shown and was narrowing down the long list of martial arts the girl could be involved in in his head.

The blond kid coughed, having had the breath knocked out of him, and scrambled to get up. "What the hell's your problem!"

"The kid's not interested." She flicked her long wavy hair behind her and crossed her arms. "Leave him alone. I'm not gonna tell you again."

At this, the blond bristled. "What, you think i'm afraid of some girl." He said it as if 'girl' was some type of slur.

She frowned, as if in thought. "Well if you weren't, you wouldn't be standing there all ready to run now would you?" The sass was clear in her voice, as was the spanish accent, and it was then that Damian recognized her. Her name was Luciana, and she was the running back on the football team. The best one the school had had in decades if he remembered correctly.

The blond turned red at Luciana's call out and walked towards her with his fist clenched. "You bitch-"

"Ah ah." she wavered her finger back in forth in a 'no' motion. "The boys don't like it at all when people call me names. Isn't that right?" She looked to the wall of teammates that had rallied behind her when the confrontation had started and smiled. It was the star quarterback, a combodian boy named Anthony (if Damian remembered correctly) who walked forward first, followed by Riley (that one Damian definitely remembered, seeing as the boy was in his government class) a slightly shorter blond boy with an undercut, and then the rest of the team. The blond bully paled, looked around at all the students who had gotten up to see the conflict, and ran away, shoving past students as he went. Luciana turned towards the small boy who had been harrassed and in the gentlest voice asked "Do you want to come sit with us?" The kid hesitated and looked at the rest of the football (all of which were smiling and giving the kid a thumbs up).

"You don't have to if you don't want." The kid took one more second to reconsider, before grabbing his things and standing up.

At this point the show was over and everyone was going back to their lunch. Damian looked to his right to see Jack grinning at Luciana's back.

"Who was that?" The two made their way back to their table. "Did you see what she did to that guy! And the way she involved all her friends! What a power move." Jack laughed.

"That was Luciana." Damian swallowed a piece of apple and continued. "She's the schools running back. And those friends were the rest of the football team. Her parents do business with Wayne Industries."

"Oh?" Jack had that unsettling smile on his face again. "What kind of business?"

"Her parents are the biggest security providers in the state. Touch pads, scanners, security cameras. They do everything. Every piece of security at Wayne Industries, be that hardware or software use her parents tech."

"With some modifications of course." The comment struck Damian as odd, but before he could say anything Jack asked "So she probably could have decided to do anything in this school, and she chose football?"

Damian shrugged, as if he didn't really care, and before he could pop the next piece of fruit in his mouth, the bell rang. Damian cursed and packed up his lunch (which he hadn't even eaten a third of).

"You're on your own now. Remember to use the maps." Damian walked away, hurrying to get to his next class.

"Later Damian!"

Vaguely, Damian came to the realization that, in the six years of his schooling, Jack was only the person he had ever spent an extended period of time with in school. He mulled the fact over, wondering if their 'friendship' would stick, or if Jack would hear about the various 'incidents' he had gotten involved in in his youth and decide to steer clear.

Damian shook his head, as if to dislodge his thoughts. Jack was surprisingly interesting, and just shady enough for Damian to be wary. If their friendship continued, then at least junior year would be entertaining.

The rest of the school day passed in a blur. Damian got the rest of his required forms from his teachers and sat through the remaining presentations about what they'd be learning this year (Most of which he had already learned) and how they'd be graded. When it was time to leave Damian briefly met Jack in the courtyard (the other boy having waited for Damian), only to bid him goodbye a second later as Jason pulled into the school. Jack didn't seem to broken up about it and stayed by the gates, as if waiting for somebody himself.

The car ride was quiet. Damian vaguely told Jason about his day, leaving out the part about his wacky day dream, and mildly thanked Jason for the ride.

He wasn't even completely through the Manor's door when Alfred the Cat jumped out of his bag and shot upstairs. Damian frowned concerned, but decided to give the cat some space. He trudged up stairs, up to his room, and layed down on his bed, eyes staring at the ceiling. He took one breath, then two, and before he realized it, the stress of the day was melting away into nothing. Slowly, his eyes drooped, then closed completely and it was with a weird, flying feeling, like a butterfly flapping in the air, that Damian found himself asleep.


End file.
